Montgomery released from prison after Gov. McDonnell issues pardon

JARRATT — Johnathon Montgomery said the first hint of freedom came late Tuesday afternoon.

A prison guard brought a set of civilian clothes to his cell at the Greensville Correctional Center, and said it “was time to pack up my stuff.”

“I said, ‘Am I being released?’” he said, though the guard didn’t answer directly.

“It was like there was a surprise party. Everybody knew about it before I did.”

Then, at 5:15 p.m., Gov. Bob McDonnell called Montgomery and told him he was granting him a conditional pardon. The governor apologized for the injustice that has kept him locked up for the past four years.

The pardon, granted less than 24 hours after it was filed, allowed for Montgomery’s immediate release about a month after his accuser admitted she lied in 2008 when she claimed Montgomery sexually assaulted her eight years earlier.

“It is a travesty of justice when an innocent person is confined in a jail or prison, and it should never occur in our society,” McDonnell said in a statement Tuesday. “Tonight I called Johnathan to personally offer, on behalf of the citizens of the Commonwealth, our heartfelt apologies for all that he has been put through due to this miscarriage of justice.”

McDonnell then called Montgomery’s mother and father. His father, an appliance repairman in North Carolina, missed the call because of a company policy that prohibits him from picking up his cell phone while driving.

“He left a message that basically said he was sorry that it happened ... and that John’s coming home,” David Montgomery said.

’Tragically delayed’

Johnathon Montgomery received an $80 check from the prison canteen fund. From 6 p.m. on, he waited for his mother, family friend Pam Cross, and a staff member with the Hampton public defender’s office. They arrived just before 8 p.m.

“It feels awesome,” he said as a crisp wind blew along the road leading into the prison. “It’s a great feeling. ...You don’t know what is lost until you’ve lost it.”

He looked forward to talking to family members whenever he wanted and doing the “normal things that people take for granted.”

“It's beginning to be over," said his mother, Mishia Woodruff. “I'm so happy to have him out. There was a lot of anxiety getting here. I was anxious, excited, all that stuff.”

When she first saw him in the prison, she said, she almost didn’t recognize him in his civilian clothes. “He’ll always be my baby,” Woodruff said.

As for what they would do now, she said: “He’s got decisions made for him for the past five years, so he gets to make decisions and call the shots. He’s a grown man.”

After his release he planned to go to a restaurant in Newport News for pizza, then check in with his probation officer. Under his pre-approved release plan, he was expected to stay Tuesday night with Peggy Cameron of the Hampton Public Defender’s Office, at her home in Newport News.

Though he is not “restricted in movement,” Cameron said, Montgomery must get approval to travel out of the state. State officials are considering a plan that would allow him to travel to his father’s home in North Carolina for Thanksgivng.

“My dad has a cute little dog, and I can’t wait to get to his house and hold that dog,” he said. “I have a cat that I haven’t seen in four years.”

He plans to go to Best Buy and purchase a Bluetooth device, and to see the new “Twilight” movie.

“This situation has been a tragedy,” McDonnell said in his statement. “An innocent man was in jail for four years. While tonight Mr. Montgomery is free from prison, he will never get those years of his life back.”

“I am thankful that the witness in this case finally stepped forward to recant her testimony. Justice, while tragically delayed, has been served.”

As Montgomery put it: “I didn’t realize it until three or four days ago, but the truth sets you free, and it has been the force for freedom in my case and in other people’s cases.”

Pardon process

The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, based in Washington, D.C., emailed the petition for conditional pardon late Monday.

“The petition was filed at 9:11 p.m. (Monday) with the governor’s staff,” said Shawn Armbrust, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project’s executive director. The petition was eight pages, and included trial and sentencing transcripts, in addition to Hampton police documents and an email from Commonwealth's Attorney Anton Bell supporting the release.

Under the conditional pardon, Montgomery, 26, was released from custody while a separate petition — for a “writ of actual innocence” — wends its way through the Virginia Court of Appeals in a process that could drag on for months.

In 2008, Montgomery was convicted of the sexual assault eight years earlier of a 10-year-old girl. Montgomery was 14 at the time the assault was supposed to have occurred. His accuser, Elizabeth Coast, now 22, recanted her testimony last month.

Coast said she made up the story as a way to deflect her parents' anger after she was caught searching for sexually explicit websites online. She explained that she picked Montgomery as her attacker because she knew his family had moved away to Florida and she didn't think police would be able to find him. Instead, police tracked him down in Florida and arested him.

Coast, who until earlier this month worked as a civilian information clerk for the Hampton Police Division, is being charged with perjury.

Before Coast came forward, Montgomery was expected to serve another 2 1/2 years on what was originally a 7 1/2-year sentence.

Montgomery’s lawyer, Hampton Deputy Public Defender Ben Pavek, filed a motion on Nov. 1 asking for a court order overturning the conviction.

That motion, strongly backed by Commonwealth’s Attorney Anton Bell, was granted on Nov. 9 by Circuit Court Judge Randolph T. West, who was the trial judge in 2008.

Later in the day, however, the Attorney General’s Office blocked Montgomery’s release, saying West didn’t have the authority to act. The Attorney General’s Office contended that under state law, state courts could not reverse a verdict more than 21 days after a trial verdict.

Montgomery will remain on probation. The full terms of the release terms were unclear late Tuesday, including his status as a registered sex offender.

The governor said he issued the conditional pardon after his office reviewed court documents, and listened to a recording of a recent interview with Coast. The petition package included a letter from Bell saying that Montgomery "is an innocent man, falsely imprisoned as a result of false accusation and perjured testimony."

In her discussions with the governor’s office, Armbrust said she alerted the governor’s staff that Montgomery does not have family or friends in Virginia. Requiring him to remain in Virginia could be a burden on his parents, who live in North Carolina and Florida.

A local appellate attorney, Charles Haden, explained that a pardon is not an admission by the state of a wrongful conviction, but only a forgiveness of the punishment under humanitarian or extenuating circumstances. Haden said he wouldn’t be surprised if keeping him in Virginia were a condition of release.

“If he moves to California and doesn’t do anything to file a writ of actual innocence” then you could have “a real mess” trying to extradite him back.

“It’s certainly preferable for Mr. Montgomery that he gets released from prison sooner rather than later,” Haden said. A provision that he stay in Virginia is “certainly preferable to remaining incarcerated while waiting for the Court of Appeals to act.”